Photos by Caitlin Abrams
Pizza Karma
Yes, those are pizza ovens!
Maybe you thought there was nowhere else to go in the pizza category. We’ve done thin crust, stuffed crust, cauliflower crust; red sauce, white sauce, green sauce, taco sauce; all cheese, no cheese, nut cheese, kimchis; and so much more. We use ovens heated with gas, fired with wood, powered by coal, or blasted with infrared light. Your pizza comes from a restaurant, a brewery, a truck, a dive bar, a guy on a bike. Who knew we needed one more pizza in our lives?
Raghavan Iyer, he knew.
Iyer is one of our most distinguished local chefs, having collected medals and honors for his bestselling books like 660 Curries, and a James Beard Award for his Indian cooking web series, RaghavanIyer.com. He is the man who looked at pizza, America’s favorite school-party, pre-game, post-bar snack, and said, “Why not from a tandoor?” And so, Pizza Karma was born in a strip mall just off the main drag in Eden Prairie.
A tandoor oven is a clay cooking vessel used widely in the Middle East, India, and parts of Asia. It may come in various shapes, but the basic design remains the same: a clay cylindrical core, which curves inward at the top, like a jug, to hold in heat. Fired from the bottom, the clay in the oven and the air in the cylinder can reach 900 degrees. And it stays that hot for quite a while.
Long skewers of meat cook in the middle of the tandoor. But flat breads like naan are slapped against the sides of the oven. They puff and bake in the heat, peeling off the sides when they are set and ready. It takes two minutes. From three giant orange bell-shaped tandoor ovens, Pizza Karma pulls naan this way for its crusts.
But don’t think of this as Indian pizza.
“This is a global restaurant,” Iyer said as he introduced me to the space. “This is about flavors and spices from all over the world.”
Walking up to the menu board to order at the counter, you can see it clearly. Besides the naan crust, the ingredient list includes fenugreek, North African harissa, creamy coconut curry, lamb meatballs, spiced garbanzo beans, and yes, pepperoni.
Tandoors produce this killer Chicken Kebab pie, in Eden Prairie.
Choosing from the signature pizzas, I’d go with the Chicken Kebab. The pizza starts with yogurt-marinated local chicken, roasted in the tandoor. On top go fresh peppers, a vibrant tomato sauce laced with fenugreek spice. The mortar for this bric-a-brac: creamy buffalo mozzarella. So many flavors in one bite.
I suspect vegetarians will be quite happy with the potato pizza: slices of potatoes and veggies, grilled in the tandoor with mango powder and black salt. Toothy and crisp, the vegs provide a backbone for the habanero-harissa sauce. (The heat and flavor will flip your eyelids.) It comes with vegan cheese, but (for non-vegans) I prefer the provolone-mozzarella blend.
Creamy coconut shrimp pizza. Pulled pork pizza dressed in chile de arbol. Mind-bending pizzas all around. I built a Steph March special from the garlic-cilantro naan, slathered with the North African harissa sauce. I added lamb meatballs, roasted garlic, wild mushrooms, and the fresh mozz. Feel free to copy it, but you can’t order it by name as The Smarch. (I’m working on it.)
Talking about labeling, the karma part of Pizza Karma is real. “We are looking at the pizza world and turning it upside down,” Iyer said. “That’s not just about what you put in your mouth. It’s about what you do with your life.”
Iyer’s business model includes committing a portion of profits to local charities; they’re working on selecting their first partner. All of his service ware is compostable, and an automated hand-washing station at the entryway delivers more fun than you’d guess. Each time I’ve visited, I’ve had smiling young servers taking my order and bringing my food.
“What you put out, you get back,” Iyer said. “It’s part of our customer service, and the way we want to live our lives.”
Eden Prairie’s Pizza Karma may be the first of its kind, but it most likely won’t prove the last. Will nice humans with cool ovens turn into the next big thing in pizza? If we’re lucky. 8451 Joiner Way, Eden Prairie, 952-467-6100, pizzakarma.com
